Fort Lauderdale Gate Pros: Custom Iron, Aluminum & Automatic Driveway Gates for Homes and Businesses
Residential and commercial gate design, fabrication, automation and service across Broward County. Marine-grade aluminum, wrought iron, ornamental steel, wood and composite gates built for salt air and hurricane season by a licensed, insured crew.
- Licensed & Insured
- 15+ Years in Broward County
- Free On-Site Estimate
- Se Habla Español
Our Gate Services in Fort Lauderdale, FL
Driveway Gates
A driveway gate on a Fort Lauderdale waterfront lot is the most exposed metal on the property. It hangs in salt air, it moves, and every moving part is somewhere corrosion starts working long before the finish shows a mark.
Wrought Iron Gates
Real iron near the water is a commitment rather than a purchase. Chloride finds steel through any break in the coating, and on a lot off the Intracoastal that first break arrives a good deal sooner than the brochure photograph suggests.
Garage & Parking Gates
Parking gates on the barrier island sit in the worst spot on the building. The ramp mouth funnels wind driven rain and salt spray straight down onto the operator, the slab pitches toward it, and the assembly cycles a few hundred times a day.
Ornamental Steel Gates
Two ornamental gates can carry the same drawing, the same alloy and the same welds, and one will look sound in ten years while the other is bleeding rust at the pickets. The difference is almost always what happened to the metal before the color went on.
Aluminum Gates
Aluminum is the default answer within a few blocks of the water, and it is a good one, but it is not the immune material some brochures imply. It corrodes differently and more slowly, and it fails in places steel does not.
Wood Gates
Salt does not eat wood. It eats everything holding the wood up.
Sliding Gates
A ground track through a Fort Lauderdale driveway is a channel that collects water, sand and salt, then holds all three against steel wheels. It works beautifully for two years and becomes a service call every month after that.
Swing Gates
A swing gate is a hinge with a large decorative flag bolted to it. On the water that is the whole engineering problem, because a hinge is a bearing, and a bearing in salt air is a wear part with a countdown on it.
Cantilever Gates
Cantilever gates are the right answer on a Fort Lauderdale property for one reason above all others: nothing touches the ground. No track to fill with sand, no wheels sitting in a puddle of brackish water after a high tide.
Bi-Fold & Vertical Pivot Gates
These exist because of geometry, not because of features. When a driveway is too short for a swing arc and there is no side yard for a slide to park in, folding or lifting the leaf is sometimes the only way a gate fits the property at all.
Automatic Gate Operators
An operator is an electric motor, a gearbox and a circuit board living outdoors within reach of salt spray. Nothing about that combination is naturally durable, and the difference between a four year unit and a fifteen year unit is mostly how it was housed and wired.
Access Control & Keypads
A keypad on a waterfront driveway is a small sealed box that gets rained on, splashed with salt, and pressed by a wet hand several times a day. Almost every failure we see is water getting into it or corrosion getting under it.
Telephone Entry Systems
Most single family clients who ask for a telephone entry system do not need one. What they actually want is to let a visitor in without walking to the street, and there are two cheaper ways to do that before you buy a directory unit.
Safety Sensors & UL 325 Compliance
UL 325 asks a simple question of every automatic gate: if this leaf closes on a person, what stops it. The answer has to be two independent means of entrapment protection, and on the water the second one is usually the one that quietly stops working.
Gate Motors & Solar Power
We install solar gate systems and we talk most Fort Lauderdale clients out of them. On a typical waterfront lot the panel is the wrong answer to a problem that a trench solves permanently and for less money over the life of the gate.
Custom & Estate Gates
The more sculptural a gate is, the more places water can sit in it. That is the tension in every estate gate on the water, and it is resolvable, but it has to be resolved at the drawing stage rather than during fabrication.
Security Fencing & Perimeter
A waterfront perimeter has an open side and there is no getting around it. You can secure three boundaries of a property on the Intracoastal, and the fourth is a seawall with a dock on it, which changes what the fence is actually for.
Commercial & Industrial Gates
The marine yards along the Dania Cut-off Canal and the New River run the hardest environment for a gate anywhere in Broward. Bottom paint dust, pressure wash runoff, hauled boats dripping salt water across the apron, and a perimeter that is half chain link and half water.
Welding & Gate Fabrication
Welding for the water is a different craft from welding for a dry climate, because a weld is a metallurgical discontinuity and salt attacks discontinuities first. Most of what we do in the shop is aimed at leaving as few of those as possible.
Emergency Gate Service
Two kinds of emergency call come in from waterfront properties, and they need different responses. The gate will not open, which is urgent and usually electrical.
Fort Lauderdale Gate Pros is a licensed and insured gate contractor with over 15 years of experience designing, fabricating, automating and servicing driveway gates for residential and commercial properties in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
Our work covers custom wrought iron and ornamental steel gates, marine-grade powder-coated aluminum gates, cedar and composite gates on welded steel frames, vinyl and PVC gates, single and dual swing gates, roller and cantilever slide gates, bi-fold and vertical-pivot gates for short waterfront lots, estate entrances, security fencing, parking barrier arms and full in-house welding and fabrication.
On the electronics side we install and repair automatic gate operators from LiftMaster, DoorKing, FAAC and Ramset, plus telephone entry systems, keypads, card and fob readers, video intercoms, loop detectors, photo-eye sensors, solar and battery packages and Knox box fire-department access.
Two things decide how long a gate lasts in this city, and neither of them is the design. The first is salt.
Fort Lauderdale has miles of Atlantic beach and hundreds of miles of navigable canal, and airborne chloride reaches well inland on the sea breeze, so we specify hot-dip galvanizing under the powder coat on steel and marine-grade alloy with stainless fasteners on aluminum rather than treating either as an upgrade.
The second is wind, because Broward County sits in Florida's High-Velocity Hurricane Zone and a gate leaf is a sail on two hinges. We build in 14-gauge and 16-gauge tube depending on span and operator load, set posts deep in concrete sized for the overturning load, and hang hardware rated for the leaf rather than for the invoice.
Every operator is set up to UL 325 safety compliance with the correct Class I through Class IV classification, entrapment protection wired and tested, and force limits dialed to where they belong. Licensed, insured and bonded, International Door Association member, written workmanship warranty on everything we install.
What Fort Lauderdale Customers Say
We are on a canal and our last gate rusted through in four years. These guys galvanized the steel before coating it and used stainless hardware throughout. Three summers in and there is not a mark on it.
Short driveway, sidewalk right at the property line, and two other companies told us a gate was impossible. They measured the back-run and put in a slide gate that clears perfectly. Clean work.
They drew up elevations for our HOA architectural committee before fabricating anything, which saved us a rejection. Gate went in on schedule and the columns match the house exactly.
Our operator died in the middle of storm season. They came out the same afternoon, found a fried control board rather than selling us a new motor, and added a battery backup we should have had all along.
Wide opening for the horse trailer and no power anywhere near the road. They sized a solar and battery package properly and showed us the math. It has never once run out of charge.
Our board asked for a written safety report on both entrances. They found photo eyes that had never been aligned and force limits turned all the way up by a previous company. Fixed both and documented it.
Why Fort Lauderdale Chooses Fort Lauderdale Gate Pros
- ✓Over 15 years installing and automating gates across Broward County
- ✓In-house metal shop — we weld and powder coat our own gates rather than drop-shipping them
- ✓Marine-grade aluminum and hot-dip galvanized steel specified for coastal salt air
- ✓Waterfront, canal-front and marina-community gate work is a specialty, not a sideline
- ✓Every operator wired to UL 325 with photo eyes, loop detectors and tested entrapment protection
- ✓Licensed, insured and bonded, with a written workmanship warranty
- ✓Se habla español
About Fort Lauderdale Gate Pros in Fort Lauderdale, FL
Fort Lauderdale Gate Pros has spent over 15 years designing, building, automating and rescuing driveway gates across Fort Lauderdale and Broward County. We started as a small metal shop taking on whatever welding came through the door and grew the way a gate should be built: slowly, square, and on a foundation that goes deep enough.
Today we handle custom wrought iron entrance gates, marine-grade aluminum and ornamental steel, cantilever slide gates, parking barrier arms and access control for gated and marina communities, and we still run every job with our own crews rather than handing your property to a subcontractor you have never met.
What sets us apart is the part you only find out about in year five. We fabricate to your opening and your slope, hot-dip galvanize or blast and powder coat inside and out, use stainless hardware on anything within reach of salt air, and set posts deep in concrete so the gate never drifts.
Every operator is wired to UL 325 with photo eyes, loop detectors and tested entrapment protection, and we size the operator class to the leaf weight instead of to whatever was on the truck.
In a city where half the addresses are on water and every one of them is in a hurricane zone, building to the environment is not an upgrade, it is the job.
From wrought iron and ornamental steel to aluminum, wood, vinyl, sliding, swing, cantilever and bi-fold gates, plus operators, keypads, telephone entry, safety sensors, solar power, security fencing and emergency service, Fort Lauderdale Gate Pros is one phone call for an entrance that looks sharp and works every single time you pull up to it. Licensed, insured and bonded, International Door Association member, written workmanship warranty on every install. Se habla español, and the on-site estimate is always free.
How It Works
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1. Design & quote
We come out, measure the opening, shoot the slope, check the seawall setback if you are on water, and find out what power actually exists at the gate. You get an itemized written quote with the material gauge and the finish system spelled out.
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2. Fabrication & prep
We cut and weld the gate in our own shop, blast it, galvanize or prime it and powder coat inside and out, then set posts in concrete and trench conduit for the operator, the loops and the access control.
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3. Install & automate
We hang the gate, mount and align the operator, wire the keypad, exit loop and photo eyes, then program remotes and set travel and force limits to UL 325 before anybody drives through it.
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4. Test & hand off
We cycle the gate dozens of times, test entrapment protection against a real obstruction, walk you through the manual release and the battery backup, and leave the manuals with you instead of in the truck.
Commercial, Marina & Gated-Community Gate Services in Fort Lauderdale
We install, automate and maintain commercial gates for gated communities, HOAs, condominium and marina properties, boatyards, self-storage, distribution yards and municipal sites across Broward County. Heavy cantilever slide gates on hot-dip galvanized frames, Class III and Class IV operators, telephone entry with directory codes, card and fob readers, loop detectors, barrier arms and Knox box fire-department access, all wired to UL 325 and kept inspection-ready so residents, tenants and trucks keep moving.
- ✓Gated communities & HOAs
- ✓Marinas, boatyards & waterfront properties
- ✓Condominium & apartment entrances
- ✓Distribution yards & self-storage
- ✓Cantilever slide gates & barrier arms
- ✓Telephone entry, card readers & keypads
- ✓Class III/IV operators wired to UL 325
- ✓Scheduled maintenance & 24-hour service
Service Areas
Fort Lauderdale Gate Pros serves Fort Lauderdale, FL and surrounding communities including:
Recent Projects Across Broward County
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a driveway gate cost in Fort Lauderdale?
Most automated driveway gates here run from the mid-$4,000s to around $15,000 installed, and material drives the spread more than design does. A single marine-grade aluminum swing gate on a modest lot sits at the bottom. A dual-swing ornamental iron gate with keypad, exit loop, photo eyes and battery backup sits in the middle.
A custom estate entrance on a waterfront property with hot-dip galvanizing, underground operators and integrated columns sits at the top. We measure on site and quote in writing, because slope, setback and available power move the number more than the pickets do.
Will a gate rust living this close to the water?
Untreated steel absolutely will, and faster than owners expect. Airborne salt does not stop at the beach; it carries several miles inland on the prevailing easterly, so a canal-front house in Rio Vista and a house four blocks off Federal Highway are both in a corrosive environment.
Steel rusts from inside the tube where nobody looks, so we blast to bare metal, hot-dip galvanize where exposure warrants it, then powder coat inside and out with sealed weep points. On direct-oceanfront properties we normally recommend marine-grade aluminum instead, because aluminum simply does not rust.
Do gates in Broward County need hurricane engineering?
Broward sits inside Florida's High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, and while a driveway gate is not a building envelope component the way an impact window is, the posts, footings and anchorage still have to carry real wind load.
A wide solid privacy leaf is a sail, which is why we frequently split a wide opening into a dual swing, perforate a solid panel, or move the design to a slide gate. We permit through the Fort Lauderdale building department where the work requires it and stay on site for the inspection.
Can you build a gate for a canal-front or marina property?
Yes, and it is a large part of what we do. Waterfront lots bring their own constraints: seawall setbacks, limited driveway depth between the street and the house, a boat trailer or service truck that needs a wider opening than a car does, and salt exposure on every face.
We usually end up with a slide gate or a dual swing in marine-grade aluminum, stainless hardware throughout, sealed operator enclosures mounted above expected flood level, and conduit planned before the driveway is finished.
What happens to my gate when the power goes out?
With a battery backup it keeps cycling, usually long enough to get through a storm day. Without one you pull the manual release and move the gate by hand. Battery backup runs a few hundred dollars installed and we fit it as standard here rather than as an upsell, because hurricane season is precisely when nobody wants to be standing in the rain wrestling a heavy leaf open by hand.
How long does a gate install take from order to working gate?
For a fabricated gate, plan on three to six weeks from signed quote to a working entrance. Roughly two to four of those weeks are shop time for cutting, welding, blasting and coating, and the finishing system is the part that cannot be rushed without ruining it.
Site work is normally one to three days: setting posts, trenching conduit, cutting the exit loop, hanging the gate and commissioning the operator. Custom estate work with columns and lighting runs longer and we give you the real date rather than an optimistic one.